A number of the nation's leading AIDS experts have sharply criticized the U.S. government for funding a $119 million study of a new AIDS vaccine, developed partly by a Bay Area biotechnology company, that they argue is likely to fail.

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If another large AIDS-vaccine trial fails, the public may give up hope in the technology. But another large-scale vaccine trial is years off, and even a failed trial yields useful lessons. The vaccine is not expected not harm patients who receive it, and it just might help them. Because big clinical trials are hard to run, a little more practice would be good—as would a better idea of the results before the trial is canceled.